BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 1903 (Wilk) - Aliso Canyon gas leak: health impact study
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|Version: June 22, 2016 |Policy Vote: E., U., & C. 11 - |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Narisha Bonakdar |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 1903 requires the California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) to authorize the Office of Environmental
Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to study the long-term health
impacts of the natural gas leak at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas
Storage Facility (Aliso Canyon) if funding is available.
Fiscal
Impact:
Approximately $12.9 million for the first three years for
OEHHA to perform the required evaluations and studies.
Ongoing annual costs of $3.3 million for OEHHA from the fourth
year until
December 31, 2028.
Minor costs to the CPUC; however, the CPUC notes that the
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cumulative fiscal impact of the Aliso Canyon bill package is
significant.
Background:
Regulation of natural gas storage wells. Although natural gas
storage facilities are subject to the overall utilities
jurisdiction of the CPUC, natural gas storage wells and
associated piping and equipment fall under the jurisdiction of
Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal
Resources (DOGGR). Natural gas storage wells represent a small
component of the overall Underground Injection Control (UIC)
program (approximately 400 wells out of 52,000 statewide), which
generally covers permitting, inspection, enforcement, mechanical
integrity testing, plugging and abandonment oversight, data
management, and public outreach. DOGGR has acknowledged
widespread failures in the implementation of its UIC program,
and has released a "Renewal Plan" to guide its commitment to
reform. DOGGR has received personnel and funding through recent
budgets to improve program implementation, data management,
enforcement, and other functions.
Aliso Canyon gas leak impacts. On October 23, 2015, Southern
California Gas Company (SoCalGas) discovered a significant
natural gas leak from "Standard Sesnon 25" (SS 25) well at the
Aliso Canyon. The Aliso Canyon is located adjacent to the
community of Porter Ranch within the city of Los Angeles.
Several days passed before SoCalGas disclosed to the community
that a significant uncontrolled leak was occurring. The leak
lasted for four months, resulted in the relocation of more than
5,000 households (at SoCal Gas's expense), and resulted in
hundreds of public health complaints. In addition to the public
health concerns, ARB's initial coarse estimates indicate that
about 95,000 metric tons of methane was released into the air,
adding approximately 20% to the statewide methane emissions
during the duration of the leak.
The Administration's Response. On January 6, 2016, Governor
Brown issued a proclamation that declared the Aliso Canyon
situation an emergency. The emergency proclamation detailed the
administration's efforts to help stop the leak and directed
further action to protect public health and safety, ensure
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accountability, and strengthen oversight of gas storage
facilities. Among other things, the proclamation specifically
directed OEHHA to convene an independent panel of scientific and
medical experts to review public health concerns stemming from
the gas leak and evaluate whether additional measures are needed
to protect public health beyond those already put in place.
During and after the gas leak, OEHHA evaluated the health
hazards and risks posed by the gas leak. Among other things,
OEHHA's evaluation concluded that the available air sample data
does not indicate an acute health hazard, and current measured
exposures to benzene (a cancer-causing chemical) are below the
level of concern for chronic health effects.
The 2016-17 Budget includes $13.8 million and 57 positions to
implement the Governor's emergency proclamation, enhance efforts
to improve public safety statewide, and strengthen oversight of
gas storage facilities.
California Energy Commission: $1.7 million and three positions
to monitor, model, and analyze the interaction of electricity
and natural gas systems for reliability (Public Interest
Research, Development, and Demonstration Fund).
Department of Conservation: $4.2 million and 20 positions to
support increased regulatory activities (Oil, Gas and Geothermal
Resources Fund).
Air Resources Board (ARB): $2.3 million and four positions to
provide air quality monitoring near oil and gas operations (Oil,
Gas and Geothermal Resources Fund).
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Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessment: $350,000 and
two positions to support ARB's air quality monitoring (Oil, Gas
and Geothermal Resources Fund).
California Public Utilities Commission: $1.5 million and 10
positions for increased workload related to regulating natural
gas facilities and $1.7 million) and 11 positions to create the
Division of Safety Advocates (Public Utilities Commission
Utilities Reimbursement Account).
The Local Response. On February 2, 2016, SoCal Gas confirmed in
writing its commitment to provide funding for reasonable costs
to conduct a health study on potential impacts of the Aliso
Canyon gas leak, as required by the Order for Abatement issued
by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). The
order requires that the study is conducted by a third-party
approved by the SCAQMD and SoCalGas, and that an advisory
committee will be established to evaluate field data, analysis
methods, and results. The scope of work proposes that the
study: perform a literature search; identify of chemicals (or
constituents) of potential concern associated with the release;
determine the potential areas of concern and exposure point
concentrations; generate chronic toxicity values for the
widely-used natural gas odorants tetrahydrothiophene and
tert-butylmercaptan; estimate chronic cancer risks and noncancer
hazard indices; identify and describe key uncertainties; and
prepare a written report. According to the SCAQMD, it is
currently in contract negotiations with the National Academy of
Sciences to conduct the initial phase of the study, which will
determine subsequent phases of the study.
Proposed Law: This bill:
1)Requires the CPUC to authorize OEHHA to study the long-term
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health impacts of the Aliso Canyon, if sufficient funds are
available for the study.
2)Requires the study to evaluate the health impacts on
individuals who resided within a 12-mile radius of the Aliso
Canyon when the leak occurred and to evaluate the impact
exposure to chemicals, such as methane, benzene, and
mercaptan, had on residents.
3)Requires the CPUC to publish and provide a copy of the report
to the relevant policy committees in the legislature.
4)Requires the CPUC to order SoCalGas to pay for the study.
5)Allows the CPUC to include the costs of the study in any
penalties assessed on SoCal Gas.
6)Sunsets the provisions of the bill on January 1, 2029.
Related
Legislation:
SB 380 (Pavley, Chapter 14, Statutes of 2016,) extends the
Administration's moratorium on injection at the Aliso Canyon
facility until the wells are determined to be safe, and is
currently before the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 887 (Pavley, 2016) provides a framework for reforming
oversight of natural gas storage facilities. The bill mandates
minimum standards for equipment inspections, monitoring, and
testing; training of personnel; leak monitoring; response
planning; reporting; and information sharing. This bill is
pending Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 888 (Allen, 2016) establishes the Governor's Office of
Emergency Services as the lead state responder in the event of a
natural gas leak and bar leak-related costs from being borne by
rate payers. This bill is pending Assembly Appropriations
Committee.
SB 1383 (Lara, 2016) establishes goals for the emissions of
short-lived climate pollutants (including methane). This bill is
pending Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 1441 (Leno, 2016) prohibits the commission from allowing gas
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corporations to seek or receive recovery from ratepayers for the
value of natural gas lost to the atmosphere during the
extraction, production, storage, processing, transportation, and
delivery of the natural gas. This bill is pending Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
AB 1882 (Williams, 2016) prevents the approval of underground
injection well projects without concurrence of the State Water
Resources Control Board. This bill was held in Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
AB 1902 (Wilk, 2016) establishes a three-year statute of
limitations for Aliso Canyon leak-related civil actions. This
bill was held in Assembly Judiciary Committee.
AB 1904 (Wilk, 2016) requires the Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment to undertake a study of odorants. This bill is
pending Senate Environmental Quality Committee as an urgency
measure.
AB 1905 (Wilk, 2016) requires an independent science study of
natural gas storage facilities. This bill was held in Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
Staff
Comments:
This bill is one of three bills introduced by the author to
study the health impacts of Aliso Canyon. Also, as indicated
above, is one of many efforts throughout the state to assess and
address health impacts resulting from the Aliso Canyon, most
notably the SCAQMD effort described above. It is unclear how the
study required in this bill will complement or otherwise impact
the SCAQMD study.
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